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Tomato Sauce From the Scrap Bowl

Tomato Sauce

Recently, while canning and dehydrating some tomatoes, I took a break to check into Facebook. It was meant to be. I quickly noticed a post from Northwest Edible Life about using tomato skins and cores to make tomato sauce. Really? I was interested. I had an overflowing bowl of skins and cores already and more tomatoes left in the box. Some of the tomatoes I had already started were mixed in with peach skins and other scraps heading to the chicken yard. But I was able to salvage some, and with the rest of the tomatoes, I ended up with a large pot of skins and cores to try the tomato sauce idea.

Thick Rich Tomato Sauce!

Basically, the article said you can salvage enough tomato from the scraps to make a thick sauce. Remember this is being made from scraps heading to the chicken yard. I decided I better not tell the chickens about my experiment.

I began cooking the peels in the saucepan. After an hour of simmering, I used the immersion blender to break up the solids. In no time I had a pot of thick tomato mixture. Now for the amazing part.

You begin to strain the tomato puree through a sieve or food mill. I started with the food mill and switched to a fine mesh sieve. The fine mesh in the strainer actually worked better but was more time consuming.

I wanted to get as much from the tomatoes as I could so the strainer seemed to be pushing more tomato sauce through the screen. I used a large tablespoon to push the solids into the strainer. It really was working!

The Chickens Still Had a Treat

Soon, I had a pot full of delicious thick tomato sauce. All that was left for the chickens was a little more than half a cup of tomato skins and seeds. I canned three pints of thick sauce, ready for dinner making. The chickens were happy with the seeds and skins and what they don’t know…….

Hi Janet, sounds like a wonderful idea, I did away with a bunch of leftovers that could have been utilized… but your link to the receipe “directions to make the sauce from scraps” does not seem to be working, can you update this article with it? I assume you add a certain amount of water. Thanks for writing about this!

yay! I am glad it worked out for you. It’s a great way to cut down on the waste and make even more yummy food – Janet

Hi, I'm Janet. Thanks for stopping by.

Timber Creek Farm is our family farm and we share our stories and information with you through the blog. I am the writer and animal wrangler here. In addition to writing the blog posts, I manage the online shop, seek out new products to add to our Free Range Yarn lineup, and write books and magazine articles.

My background of a degree in large animal farm management and animal science from the University of Maryland, has helped me focus my energy toward helping others learn to raise livestock, chickens, ducks, rabbits, and small farm management. My love for sustainable living gives me purpose in life.